TOPIC OUTLINE

Week TOPIC
3 • The auditory systems
• The audio-visual systems and standards
• The acoustic environments and
reinforcements
• Reflection, refraction, diffractions and
absorptions
• Sound absorption coefficients and sound
modeling
THE AUDITORY
SYSTEM
 PSYCHOACOUSTICS

 Psychoacoustics is an inclusive term embracing the

physical structure of the ear, the sound pathways, the
perception of sound, and their interrelationships.

 Psychoacoustics emphasizes both structure and

function of the human ear.
THE HUMAN AUDITORY SYSTEM
 THE HUMAN AUDITORY SYSTEM

A. Outer ear
 Pinna – directional encoder of sound
 Auditory meatus (ear canal) – increase the loudness of
sound
 Average diameter: 𝟎. 𝟕 𝒄𝒎
 Average length: 𝟑 𝒄𝒎
 Average area: 𝟖𝟎 𝒎𝒎 𝟐
 The ear canal is terminated by the tympanic
membrane (or ear drum).
 THE HUMAN AUDITORY SYSTEM

B. Middle ear
 Ossicles
 Malleus (hammer) – attached to the eardrum
 Incus (anvil)
 Stapes (stirrup ) – attached to the oval window
 oval window has average area of 𝟑 𝒎𝒎 𝟐
THE HUMAN AUDITORY SYSTEM
 THE HUMAN AUDITORY SYSTEM

B. Middle ear
 Eustachian tube
 Vent to the upper throat behind the nasal cavity
THE HUMAN AUDITORY SYSTEM
 THE HUMAN AUDITORY SYSTEM

C. Inner ear
 Cochlea (―cockleshell‖)
 Size of a pea
 2 ¾ turn coil (1 inch if stretched out)

 Basilar membrane

 Stereocilia
– transducers of sound energy
to electrical energy
 3,500 Inner hair cells
 w/ 40 stereocellia each
 15,000 Outer hair cells
 w/ 140 stereocellia each
THE INNER EAR
THE AUDIO-VISUAL
SYSTEMS AND
STANDARDS
AUDIO-
VISUAL
SYSTEMS
AUDIO-
VISUAL
SYSTEMS
AUDIO-
VISUAL
SYSTEMS
AUDIO-
VISUAL
SYSTEMS
 STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT
ORGANIZATIONS
 ANSI: American National Standards Institute
 ASA: Acoustical Society of America
 CENELEC: European Committee for Electrotechnical
Standardization
 IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission
 ISO: International Standardization Organization
 ITU-T: International Telecommunication Union –
Telecommunication Standardization Sector
 JCA-AHF (Joint Coordination Activity for Accessibility and Human
Factors)
 Study Group 2 on Operational aspects
 Study Group 12 on Performance, Quality of Service (QoS) and
Quality of Experience (QoE)
 Study Group 16 on Multimedia
 ITU-R: International Telecommunication Union –
Radiocommunication Sector
 EXISTING STANDARDS FOR PERSONAL
AUDIO SYSTEMS WITH RESPECT TO
SAFE LISTENING
 EN 50332 – Sound system equipment: Headphones and earphones associated
with personal music players (PMPs) – Maximum sound pressure level
measurement methodology
 I E C / E N 6 0 0 6 5 : 2 0 1 4 : A u d i o , v i d e o a n d s i m i l a r e l e c t r o n i c a p p a ra t u s - S a f e t y
requirements
 I E C / E N 6 0 9 5 0 - 1 : 2 0 1 1 – I n f o r m a t i o n t e c h n o l o g y e q u i p m e n t - S a f e t y - Pa r t
1 : G e n e ra l r e q u i r e m e n t s
 IEC/EN 62368-1:2014 – Audio/video, information and communication
e q u i p m e n t – Pa r t 1 : S a f e t y r e q u i r e m e n t s
 I E C H D 4 8 3 - 1 S 2 : 2 0 0 3 – S o u n d Sy s t e m E q u i p m e n t – Pa r t 1 : G e n e ra l
 ITU-T P.360 (07/2006) – Efficiency of devices for preventing the
occurrence of excessive acoustic pressure by telephone receivers and
assessment of daily noise exposure of telephone users
 I T U - T P . 3 1 1 ( 0 3 / 2 0 1 1 ) Tra n s m i s s i o n c h a ra c t e r i s t i c s f o r w i d e b a n d d i g i t a l
handset and headset telephones
 ITU-T P.380 (11/2003)– Electroacoustic measurements on headsets
 I T U - T P . 3 8 1 ( 0 2 / 2 0 1 4 ) – Te c h n i c a l r e q u i r e m e n t s a n d t e s t m e t h o d s f o r t h e
universal wired headset or headphone interface of digital mobile terminals
 I T U - R B S . 1 7 7 0 - 4 ( 1 0 / 2 0 1 5 ) A l g o r i t h m s t o m e a s u r e a u d i o p r o g ra m m e
loudness and true-peak audio level
 ISO 11904 Acoustics – Determination of sound immission from sound
sources placed close to the ear
 ISO 33.160 :
AUDIO, VIDEO AND AUDIOVISUAL
ENGINEERING
 33.160.01 Audio, video and audiovisual systems in
general Stage and studio equipment, see 97.200.10
 33.160.10 Amplifiers
 33.160.20 Radio receivers
 33.160.25 Television receivers
 33.160.30 Audio systems (including tape recorders,
records, magnetic tapes, cassettes, CDs, etc .)
 33.160.40 Video systems (Including video tape
recorders, cameras, cassettes, laser disks, etc .)
 33.160.50 Accessories (Including headphones,
loudspeakers, microphones, etc .)
 33.160.60 Multimedia systems and teleconferencing
equipment
 33.160.99 Other audio, video and audiovisual
equipment
 THE ACOUSTIC
ENVIRONMENT &
REINFORCEMENTS
ACOUSTIC
ENVIRONMENT
 ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT

 The acoustic environment of a place or space is the

sound from all sources that could be heard by
someone in that place.

 “sonic environment”
 “sound environment”
 “environment of sound”
 “aural space”
 “ambient sound of a place”
 ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT

 This acoustic environment is shaped by all the

different sound sources that are present and also by
modification of the sounds as they propagate along
their paths from the sources to the receiver.

 This modification includes reflection and absorption of

sound by any surfaces present, including those of the
ground surface and, to some extent, from vegetation,
and both attenuation and refraction of sound along
the source–receiver path as it passes through the
atmosphere.
 ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT

 In outdoor areas, there will often be only one

reflecting surface—the ground surface—as the sound
travels from the source to the receiver.

 In urban areas, there additionally will be reflections

off walls and buildings, and in highly built-up areas,
the acoustic environment becomes more like the
semi-reverberant space that we experience indoors ,
with multiple reflections of sound as it travels from
the sources to the receptor.
 ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT

 Indoor acoustic environments are strongly shaped by

these reflections; outdoor acoustic environments,
particularly over longer propagation paths of
hundreds of meters or more, are more shaped by the
absorption of sound by the atmosphere and by
refractive bending of the path of sound between
sources and the receiver.

 The acoustic environment of any place thus depends

on the sources present, the location of the receiver,
and the propagation conditions along the path .

 Each of these may vary from instant to instant, from

day to night, and from season to season.
 REFLECTION,
REFRACTION, SOUND
DIFFRACTION, &
ABSORPTION
 REFLECTION

 When sound impinges upon a surface, a portion of its

energy is absorbed by the surface and the remainder
bounces back or becomes reflected from the surface.

 A perfectly hard surface will reflect back all of the

energy.

 A classic example of the reflection phenomenon is the

echo which has intrigued and mystified humanity for
centuries.
REFLECTION
REFLECTION
 REFRACTION

 A phenomenon more familiar in optics than in

acoustics is that of refraction, in which the direction
of the advancing wavefront is bent away from the
straight line of travel.

 Refraction occurs as the result of the difference in the

propagation velocity as the wave travels from one
medium to a different medium.
REFRACTION
 REFRACTION

 While the analysis of refraction does not figure

prominently in noise control, we cannot overlook the
fact that zones of severe temperature differences do
occur in the atmosphere and oceans.

 When sound travels from zone to zone, often across

regions of severe temperature gradients, the
direction of propagation changes measurably to an
extent that cannot be ignored.
 REFRACTION

 For example, the surface of the Earth heats up more

rapidly on a sunny day than the atmosphere.
 Due chiefly to conduction, the temperature of the air
close to the ground rises correspondingly.
 Because the speed of sound is higher in the warmer
lower layer, sound waves traveling horizontally are
refracted upward.
 Similarly on a clear night the Earth’s crust cools more
quickly, and a layer of cooler air forms and bends the
sound waves downward toward the surface.
 Thus the noise from an industrial plant would be
refracted downward at night and would seem louder to a
homeowner residing near the plant than during the day
(when upward refraction occurs), which is often the
situation.
DIFFRACTION
 DIFFRACTION

 Sound at lower frequencies tends to diffract over

partial barriers more easily than sound at higher
frequencies.

 Moreover, the sharpness and extent of the shadow

zone behind the barrier depend on the relative
positions of the source and receiver.

 The closer the source is to the barrier, the longer is

the shadow zone on the other side of the barrier, i.e.,
the more sound reduction obtained.
 ABSORPTION

 All materials constituting the boundaries of an

enclosure will absorb and reflect sound .

 Absorption occurs as the result of incident sound

penetrating and becoming entrapped in the absorbing
material, thereby losing its vibrational energy that
converts into heat through friction.
SOUND ABSORPTION
COEFFICIENTS
&
SOUND MODELLING
 SOUND ABSORPTION
COEFFICIENTS
 A fraction 𝜶 of the incident energy is absorbed and
the balance (𝟏 – 𝜶) is reflected.

 Reflection is indicated by the reflection coefficient 𝒓

defined as
𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒗𝒆
𝒓=
𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒗𝒆

 Because the energy in a sound wave is proportional

to the square of the amplitude, the sound absorption
coefficient 𝜶 and the reflection coefficient are related
by
𝜶 = 𝟏 − 𝒓𝟐
 SOUND ABSORPTION
COEFFICIENTS
 The value of the sound absorption coefficient α will
vary with the frequency of the incident ray and the
angle of incidence.

 Materials comprising room surfaces are subject to

sound waves that impinge upon them from many
different angles as a result of multiple reflections.

 Hence, published data for absorption coefficients are

for ―random‖ incidence as distinguished from
―normal‖ or ―perpendicular‖ incidence.
 SOUND ABSORPTION
COEFFICIENTS
 Let 𝜶 𝟏 , 𝜶 𝟐 , 𝜶 𝟑 , ...𝜶 𝒊 denote the absorption coefficient
of different materials of corresponding areas 𝑺 𝟏 , 𝑺 𝟐 ,
𝑺 𝟑 ,.... 𝑺 𝒊 forming the interior boundary planes (viz.
the walls, ceiling and floor) of the room as well as
any other absorbing surfaces (e.g. furniture,
draperies, people, etc.).

 The average absorption coefficient α for an enclosure

is defined by
𝜶 𝟏 𝑺 𝟏 +𝜶 𝟐 𝑺 𝟐 +𝜶 𝟑 𝑺 𝟑 + ⋯ + 𝜶 𝒊 𝑺 𝒊 𝑨
𝜶= =
𝑺 𝟏 +𝑺 𝟐 +𝑺 𝟑 + ⋯ + 𝑺 𝒊 𝑺
 where 𝑨 represents the total absorptive area 𝜶 𝒊 𝑺 𝒊 ,
and 𝑺 the total spatial area.